If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

FEAR 1 is a decent shooter; if you're into shooters you can't go wrong. Meaty weapons, decent AI and a few scares to be had as well. The level design is horribly uninspired (mostly bland warehouses and office interiors repeated ad nauseum) but isn't a huge problem.

Haven't played the sequels so can't comment on them.

FEAR 1 is definitely a solid shooter. It reminds me, to a degree, of AvP2 in that you have a sense of tension in that you realize that you are actually fairly evenly matched with your opponents so it is all about staying alert, watching your flanks, and conserving ammo. You need to use cover, stay calm, and identify threats quickly.
The expansions are not canon and are pretty weak and much more unbalanced than the original. I suggest skipping them.

FEAR 2 is also a solid shooter, but for very different reasons. If FEAR 1 is the shootout at the end of Unforgiven, FEAR 2 is a game all about The Lobby Scene from the only Matrix movie. Bullets fly everywhere, stuff is constantly exploding, and it is glorious.
The expansion/DLC is nothing special, but if you enjoyed FEAR 2 you'll enjoy that.

Never played FEAR 3, been on my to-do list for a while.

Also: None of the games are scary unless you were indoctrinated by hollywood and japan to such a degree that the mere sight of a little girl with dark hair makes you poop yourself. Otherwise, FEAR 1 is mostly "Aww, its Alma here to say hello" (outside of one sequence in the first expansion that actually IS somewhat tense and scary) and FEAR 2 is "God damn it, crazy Alma is attacking me again" with one particularly great sequence at the end "Wait... is she... yup, she is raping me. Wow"

Steam: Gundato
PSN: Gundato
If you want me on either service, I suggest PMing me here first to let me know who you are.

That said, I do think the campaign in DoW2 and CR are much better than that of Retribution's. You don't need GFWL for that part of it, although you will encounter it on your way to play. There's a caveat to this though; Retribution's campaign isn't bad, it's just the part where they highlight "Every faction has a playable campaign" is a bit of a misnomer because they're all almost exactly played out the same, but for the first time it's pretty good. There's also The Last Stand co-op mode that's present in all three, but is most played through Retribution because of its access to the most heroes and DLC.

I've been playing the campaign of DoW 2 and CR in co-op with my brother. Great fun, works really well.

How nice. The Secret World is on sale on the US store but not elsewhere. I was prompted to go look as my client (based in Singapore currently) left a spot empty and so did the European store. Will buying it through the US store flag my account in any way?

And yes Techno, DMC is really quite a cool game and even though I've played it tons.. I don't suggest shelling out $25 if you aren't an enthusiast.

Definitely available in Europe. The empty spot is caused by the missing Football Manager 2013 in my case.

Ah. I only looked for the empty spot. It still makes no sense to me how games can be so regionally locked that they cannot be bought through Steam. I was even tempted by the -75% deal on Hitman: Absolution yet the store signified I can only buy and play the game in South-East Asia. That will be a useful addition to my game library for when I move out of Singapore and go elsewhere...

Alan Wake - So I thought it was okay. The gameplay was repetitive, the story fell flat, but the atmosphere was great and the environments were well done. At 90% (!!!) off it's probably worth it for a try. I recommend if you do play it though that you play it on the hardest difficulty to give it some element of challenge. The stand-alone-sequel I can't comment on, nor the DLC for the first. I've heard the DLC makes more sense of the story, which I think is both good and bad.

Crysis - BUT CAN YOU RUN IT?! I enjoyed all of Crysis, even the second half and that one hated level at the end, but I also accept that I'm an anomaly in that case. The open nature of it meant, that for me, I kept repeating the tactics that worked, so early on it got a bit repetitive. Imagination will help here. Gameplay - the suit provides loads of fun options - and the gunplay is high calibre. Warhead is more linear, but I think a tighter and possible more fun experience. Mostly more of the same, however. 2, on the other hand, is much more linear than any with a bit of a hokey sci-fi story. That said, I still found it highly enjoyable and the level design, whilst narrower for sure, was still open for variable tactics. The MP is arena based in the style of COD4+. Probably doesn't have many people playing now.

(So, that's a go for Crysis 1, Warhead and a recommendation for 2, but acknowledging it's a different game to the original)

Devil May Cry 4 (I haven't played 3 or DmC [but have played 1]) - The game basically repeats itself in the second half, with an arduously repetitive penultimate level, but the action is hyper focused and extremely cool. Requires a real level of high skill to obtain the higher grades, but the satisfaction of pulling off certain combos is great. Dante's scenes and dialogue are ridiculously stupid and awesome. That other guy, whose name I've forgotten, is lame in comparison but has a cool specific move that works well in combat. (DMC 3 and 4 are 75% off instead of 50, and you can get them in a bundle that saves a couple of quid.)

Serious Sam - WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! So yeah, 90% off? Jeez. Buy everything. No, seriously - Serious Sam Complete Pack, buy it. SS First Encounter and Second Encounter (HD) are stonkingly great and equally challenging, whilst SS3 is a step-down from both, but still great in the current climate of shooters. The DLC for it I can highly recommend as the best content 'in' SS3. Double D is a fun side-scroller that very much carries the tone of SS and its highly silly weapon stacking is actually surprisingly complex when used. Haven't played Random Encounter, but there you go.

This is the first Steam summer sale I've got involved with so I'm not sure whether it's common to compare it to coming back from Vegas, but I've regretted every purchase I've made thus far. The interface in Lords of Football is awful and the player behind the mouse is so underused that I might as well not be there at all. Deadlight was decent but made me want to go play Flashback instead, and while Thomas Alone impressed me with it's ability to add more character to a literal square block than the entire AAA industry's laughable attempts with multi-million dollar graphics, the puzzles themselves are an unwelcome obstacle.

So what do I do, cut my losses and run? Hell no. I'm going all in. Scribblenauts, Don't Starve, Amnesia, Sleeping Dogs, Mark of the Ninja. All of them CAN'T fail me, surely.

Sleeping Dogs wont fail. Scribblenauts is hit or miss from what I'm told. Amnesia you'll play until it scares you and then banish it from your HDD. Mark of the Ninja is probably good and I'll probably buy it too!

"Halo is designed to make the player think "I look like that, I am macho sitting in my undies with my xbox""

p.s. Scribblenauts is a 'what you make it' game - you can complete it by using the same ideas over and over - but you don't HAVE to do it that way. If you're a completion/achievements/score person, you won't get it - perhaps.

This is the first Steam summer sale I've got involved with so I'm not sure whether it's common to compare it to coming back from Vegas, but I've regretted every purchase I've made thus far.

The Steam Summer Sale, as every other (big) sale, gives you the opportunity to buy those games that you might have been interested in, but were clearly not flawless and thus not worth their initial asking price. There's bound to be some disappointments in there when you start them up and are confronted with those very flaws.

You could use the sale to only buy last year's big studio releases, but I've always found it fun to look beyond those and try to find some less well known games that have original ideas, but are perhaps rough around the edges.

So yes, it's common to be a little disappointed. But that's also the reason you wait for the sale to give these games a try. It's much less of a disappointment, I figure, to dislike a €2,50 game than it is to dislike that €60 game you pre-ordered because 'surely it can't be bad?'.

Last edited by Tritagonist; 16-07-2013 at 08:10 PM.

"He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to
the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free". ~ Luke 4:18